2023 article
Shrink or grow the kids? Scale cognition in an immersive virtual environment for K-12 summer camp
2023 IEEE CONFERENCE ON VIRTUAL REALITY AND 3D USER INTERFACES ABSTRACTS AND WORKSHOPS, VRW, pp. 721–722.
Virtual reality (VR) has been widely used for education and affords embodied learning experiences. Here we describe: Scale Worlds (SW), an immersive virtual environment to allow users to shrink or grow by powers of ten (10X) and experience entities from molecular to astronomical levels; and students' impressions and outcomes from experiencing SW in a CAVE (Figure 1) during experiential summer outreach sessions. Data collected from post-visit surveys of 69 students, and field observations, revealed that VR technologies: enabled interactive learning experiences; encouraged active engagement and discussions among participating students; enhanced the understanding of size and scale; and increased interest in STEM careers.